Belonging
by TwistedSky
Summary: Chloe Sullivan was hiding in a bathtub. Chloe/Oliver.


I had a dream a few days ago, about Chlollie. So I wrote a oneshot.  
*insert standard disclaimer*

* * *

Chloe Sullivan was hiding in a bathtub.

A slightly wet, and uncomfortable bathtub. Normally, she thought, people didn't spend four hours in a bathtub, else they would probably make better(by which she meant comfortable) bathtubs.

Considering, of course, that this bathtub belonged to a billionaire, you would think he'd want a more comfortable bathtub. Apparently not.

This entire situation was, of course, his fault. Mostly-it may have been a teensy bit her fault too. But it was definitely more his fault than hers. Right?

After all, not only was it his fault that she was in this predicament in the first place, but it was his fault for not having a more luxurious bathtub.

So was the natural way of blame in such cases.

* * *

_Five hours earlier:_

"Pregnant?" Chloe stared for a moment, felt a little nauseous.

That wasn't good. In fact, it was kind of . . . scary.

Terrifying.

The timing couldn't have been worse.

Chloe avoided the fact that the first emotion she'd felt had not been panic-but a rush of pure joy. She'd clamped down on that though, and gone the more traditional route of denial, retest, panic, retest, acceptance, denial, acceptance. Fear.

The problem, you see, was that her partner in crime, Oliver, was no longer her . . . well, partner in crime.

In fact, yesterday they'd ended their relationship. Broken things off. Broken up.

Though she supposed that you couldn't really break up if you'd never been together. Chloe felt a pang at that realization, understanding fully that she had been the one to reject the idea of having more.

Alas, here she was. Pregnant with Ollie's child. She fleetingly considered not telling him, then rejected it swiftly. That, she knew, would be a really bad idea. Not only would it be next to impossible, but if found out, he would kill her.

Then again, she was pretty sure that he wasn't ready to be a father anymore than she was ready to be a mother.

"Looks like we don't have much of a choice," she mumbled to herself aloud.

Chloe had decided that the best thing to do would just be to just rip the band-aid off.

Do it now.

While she still had the courage.

* * *

When she'd arrived at Oliver's Clocktower, she'd pressed the doorbell nervously.

_Once_. Shifty eyes.

_Twice_. Relief.

_Thrice_. Crap.

She had to pee.

She, of course, had access to Oliver's home . . . but she didn't think he think kindly of her letting herself in when he wasn't there. Especially considering how they'd left things the day before.

She'd rushed over without really thinking, she hadn't quite planned, well, any of this out. In fact, all she knew was that Oliver hadn't left Metropolis-but she had no idea where he was. She'd wanted him to be there, all the while dreading it. And here she was, and he was somewhere . . . else.

And now she really needed to use his bathroom.

Maybe she could just, you know, sneak in and out. No biggie.

Maybe, in fact, he didn't even have to know she'd ever been there. She felt her courage faltering.

She also felt her bladder pulsating-that is, if bladders could do that, because it certainly felt that way to her.

She made her decision-she broke into her ex-lover's home. "Well, when you put it that way Chloe, it seems kind of awful," she said quietly to herself. She made a break for the bathroom.

_Relief_.

As she washed her hands, she took a look at herself in the mirror. She looked completely, utterly frazzled. She felt that way too.

As she was about to leave she heard a click. Ollie was coming. Voices. Ollie, with people.

Not good. Not good.

Really _bad_, in fact.

She locked the door, raced across the living room, and into the bathroom, swiftly closing the door behind her.

"Well, that was bright, Chloe."

She had panicked. Damn it.

Now there was no way she was getting out of this without getting caught, and being stuck in the most awkward conversation possible.

Especially since she heard female laughter.

She heard Oliver direct the giggling fool towards the bathroom.

Wait. That was where she was.

So she did the only thing she could possibly do.

She jumped in the bathtub, silently thanked whatever deity happened to be listening that Oliver had a dark shower curtain, and not one of those awful see-through glass doors, and waited.

She could wait him and that bimbo out.

* * *

_Now_:

It was the team, among others.

Apparently the giggling bimbo had just been Lois.

And throughout the past few hours, she swore everyone-except Oliver, thankfully-had come through that bathroom.

AC whistled while he washed his hands, Victor complained aloud about getting certain parts of himself wet, Bart was in and out, and Dinah did the entirely predictable "checking out the medicine cabinet" thing.

To add insult to injury, she realized that this was a party of some sort-and she had not been invited.

She wasn't sure whether or not to feel grateful that she didn't have to ignore phone calls, or insulted.

_Wait a second_-she was officially the dumbest person alive. She decided to blame it on the pregnancy-and therefore add to the blame she was placing on Oliver. Stupid Oliver, who wanted more. But that was besides the point, because she had just realized that she had a way out of this.

She would have smacked herself, except she was rather afraid that it might make too much noise, and Lois had left the door open when she'd left some twenty minutes beforehand.

She decided to add Lois to the list of people she was going to blame-acknowledging that it wasn't exactly the fairest thing to do.

Then she went for her phone.

She could just text Clark, and get him to get over here and get them out.

Except. Wait. There was a reason she hadn't done that in the first place.

She was still kind of issue-y with him. But he would do this for her, if she asked. He just wasn't very good at lying. Plus, she'd heard his voice too, and he would just make things awkward.

Chloe nearly sighed, caught herself, and decided that she may as well be comfortable. She leaned back in the tub carefully, spread out her legs-they were seriously cramping-and opened up a game of sudoku on her phone.

At least she had something to do-she'd already counted all of the tiles in the wall, and she'd started in on a mental baby name list.

Minus the mess it was going to create between her and Oliver, she was actually beginning to look forward to having this baby.

She placed her hand on her still-flat abdomen, and smiled.

* * *

Finally, everyone was gone. So far as she could tell, anyway. A text assured her that Oliver had gone out as the Green Arrow.

She waited a few minutes, just to be safe, then carefully lifted herself from the tub.

She headed out into the living room, feeling incredibly relieved. As she placed her hand on the door, and started to turn the doorknob-

"Was it worth it?"

_Damn_.

Chloe's hand dropped, she took a deep breath, and turned to face Oliver.

"I thought you'd left." Really, that was all she could say.

"Considering that this is my home, I don't really think that's an excuse. Nor is it an answer to my question."

Chloe closed her eyes and thought. "Was what worth it?"

Oliver smiled, but not a kind smile. A hard, humorless smile that broke Chloe's heart to see it on his face. "Hiding in my bathtub for five and half hours, just so that you wouldn't have to talk to me. Though, really. I'd rather know what the hell you're doing here, considering how we ended things yesterday, I'd think this is the last place you'd want to be. And yes, I knew you were here the moment I came in."

"It is, actually. But I had to come, and now I'm kind of regretting it. So I'll just talk you later, when you're a little less angry with me." How had he known she was there? "And since I wasn't invited to the little shindig you decided to host tonight, I"m sure you'd rather not see me at all."

She made a move to leave, but Oliver strode quickly to the door, shut it, and waited.

"Dinah and AC were supposed to get back from their honeymoon today, so I'd planned a celebration a few weeks ago. I didn't tell you, because I'd wanted it to be a surprise."

"You wanted it to be an engagement party, for us." Realizing that made her heart ache.

"Yes. Things don't always turn out the way we want, or expect though, do they? Why are you here, Chloe?" He looked so sad, and worn out.

She wanted desperately to comfort him, but she no longer had the right to do that-that is, if she ever had.

"I needed to talk to you," she said softly, no longer able to meet his eyes. "And then I had to use the restroom, and you weren't here, so I just . . . let myself in."

She'd hurt him, horribly. She couldn't care seeing that hurt, that _she'd_ put there.

"I think we did enough talking yesterday. Remember? I said I wanted more, and you said you could never give it to me. So we ended things. What? Regretting things already? That's not like you."

She deserved his anger, she told herself. She'd done it for him, hadn't she? He deserved more, and she couldn't give it to him.

"I"m pregnant."

* * *

Oliver could have sworn someone had punched him in the face. Yet while shock was the first emotion he'd felt, the close second of joy surprised him.

He was going to be a father.

"Really?" he couldn't help the slightly silly smile that broke out across face. He probably looked like the most foolish man alive, but he didn't care. It didn't matter.

"Really." Chloe almost smiled in response, but she had more important things to worry about.

He moved close to her, placing his hand on her lower stomach. It felt . . . natural. Like the two of them just fit together, but they'd always felt that way.

In the beginning they'd fallen into working together, and it had felt right. They'd just clicked as colleagues and partners. They'd become friends, and eventually lovers. They'd clicked in bed too-although, to be honest, the bed was probably the place they'd had sex least often.

They _fit_.

And Chloe had thrown it all away. Because he deserved more than she could give him. Maybe that made her selfless, but right now she felt more foolish than anything else.

"Chloe-I didn't want this to happen."

"You didn't want a baby? Well, that's not too big of surprise. It wasn't exactly on my to-do list either."

"That's not what I meant. Us, Chloe. When I said I wanted more from you, I didn't mean to scare you away. I love you, I waited for you to love me back, I can wait for you to be ready."

Chloe felt her eyes tearing up. She blinked furiously, and tried to focus. "I don't know if I can give you more. Ever. I love you, you know that. And I didn't think I'd ever be ready to have a child with you-but now we don't have much of a choice."

"But you won't marry me."

"I can't. I lost a part of myself, a part I may never get back. I'm dark, and twisty, and damaged. I want you to have everything, Ollie. I can't give it to you."

Understanding dawned, and if Chloe hadn't been so distracted she would have realized the sly look that overcame Oliver's face.

"All I need is you, and our baby. Just us. And the family we can become. And I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly the poster child for bright, happy and normal."

"But I can't give you everything you need-"

"What exactly do you think it is that you can't give me?"

"A wife, Ollie. I'm Watchtower, I don't have the time or the inclination to be a billionaire's wife."

Oliver laughed.

He was _laughing _at her. Douche bag.

"Hey, it's not funny Ollie. I can't do it! I'd be awful. I can't do "High Society" and I won't."

"Chloe, is that all?" he managed to get out, despite the fact that he was _still laughing at her.  
_  
"Well, yeah. What else would it be?"

"It doesn't matter. Everything's going to be fine. You don't have to do that stuff if you don't want to, but I would like it if you'd marry me."

"Really? I don't?" Chloe sighed with palpable relief.

"No, you don't." Oliver crossed the room, and grabbed something. She felt like, for the first time in the last twenty-four hours, everything was going to be okay.

He came back, and she saw that he'd gone to get the engagement ring he'd never gotten the opportunity to show her, because she'd shot him down so quickly. It was . . . beautiful.

"Chloe Sullivan, I love you. And I love the life that we've made, that's growing inside of you. I'll kneel if you want me to, but I'd rather we enter into this marriage as equals. Because that's what we are, we're partners. Marry me."

She let the tears fall, "Yes, Ollie. Yes. I love you too."

He slid the ring onto her finger, it fit perfectly. It felt like it belonged there.

Just like they belonged together.

Because they did.

* * *

Review?


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